The SKS is powerful enough for 200 yards and in and mine is accurate enough with the right ammo. BUT, yeah, milsurps in general ain't the best hunting rifles. I'll take my Remington M7 any day over ANY milsurp you can mention for serious hunting. It's 3/4 MOA accurate, about 6.5 lbs plus the scope, it's stainless and has a polymer stock so its even MORE elements resistant than my SKS, which is blued. The M7 is in .308 Winchester, superior round to any 7.62x39. It is compact in a box blind. It's just a better rifle than anything milsurp for the purpose of hunting. It's not the only sporting rifle I have, but it's my fave.
I had to add a recoil pad on that SKS to get enough eye relief for the scope, not a good compromise, but one that is common. The alternative is a small, short scope with no light gathering ability when the sun is nearly set or not quite up. Iron sights in dim light are even worse and it's dim light when most game is spotted, especially hogs.
I had a brief flirtation with trying to hunt with milsurps, but realized the futility and went back to my sporting rifles. YMMV, but I suspect that as soon as a guy realizes this and can afford a Savage 110 or something, which in fact now days isn't any more expensive than an SKS, he'll move on from thinking of milsurps as primary hunting weapons.
I've spent good money on hunting trips. I don't see that getting cheap with my rifle is a good thing when I'm out 1500 bucks on a New Mexico trip just in travel expenses and a license. Bubbas might carry an SKS in the woods, but they ain't spending money on the trip.
I mean, yeah, you CAN hunt with milsurps and I have, but I cannot say it's the way to go over the myriad of quality sporting arms out there. Look at it this way, in Vietnam, when the government wanted to arm serious snipers and not just designated marksmen, they went out and bought Winchester M70s and Remington M700s to arm them with as they had nothing appropriate in the arsenal. So, just think of that Remington 700 as a mil surp sniper rifle if you want to, I mean, if that's important to you.